Making College Worth It: A Review of the Returns to Higher ...

Making College Worth It: A Review of Research on the Returns to Higher Education

Making College Worth It: A Review of the Returns to Higher Education

Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic

Summary

Despite a general rise in the return to college, likely due to technological change, the costbenefit calculus facing prospective students can make the decision to invest in and attend college dauntingly complex. Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic review research on the varying costs and benefits of higher education and explore in full the complexity of the decision to invest in and attend college. Optimal college attainment decisions are different for all prospective students, who diverge in terms of what they are likely to get out of higher education and what specific options might be best for them. Earnings of college graduates depend in important measure on the program of study and eventual occupation they choose. Students uninterested in or unable to complete a four-year college degree appear to benefit from completing a twoyear degree.

Prospective students may also face both financial constraints, which prohibit them from taking advantage of more education, and information problems and behavioral idiosyncrasies, such as reluctance to take on debt, which keep them from making optimal decisions about attending college. In their discussion of how student debt figures in the college investment, the authors note that some students borrow too little and, as a result, underinvest in their education. Carefully calculating the return on the college investment can help determine the "appropriate" amount of debt.

Students are more likely to benefit from postsecondary education the more informed they are about the expenses associated with college and the potential options for financial aid, which can be extremely complex. To make the best college investment, Oreopoulos and Petronijevic stress, prospective students must give careful consideration to selecting the institution itself, the major to follow, and the eventual occupation to pursue. For any particular program at a particular school, anticipated future labor market earnings, the likelihood of completion, the costs, and the value of any student debt must all be factored into the assessment.



Philip Oreopoulos is a professor of economics at the University of Toronto. Uros Petronijevic is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto.

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Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic

Pressure on young Americans to attend and complete college is high and rising. President Barack Obama sees college as an "economic imperative that every family in America has to be able to afford" and has set as a goal that by 2020, "America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."1 A quick search of the popular press reveals many of the standard economic arguments in favor of attending college. Recent articles in the Washington Post and Education Week report that adults with a college degree have much lower unemployment rates and higher lifetime earnings than do their peers who do not attend college.2 But despite the clear economic--and noneconomic--benefits that college-educated adults enjoy, the cost-benefit calculus facing prospective college students today can make the decision to invest in and attend college dauntingly complex. While policy makers and parents continue to push the nation's youth to enter college, the cost of attending college is increasing and students are borrowing more than ever to finance the investment.3 Moreover, students today are taking longer than their peers in past decades to complete a college degree, a fact that itself can complicate the decision of whether to attend college.4 In this article we review research on the varying costs and benefits of higher education and explore the complexity of the decision to attend college.

We begin by explaining the classic theory that describes the decision to go to college, taking note of factors that complicate that decision. We then review evidence about the return to college and the economic benefits that college graduates enjoy, and discuss the causal effect of attending college on earnings. We emphasize that the relative returns to a college education are rising--in terms of

42 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN

earnings--but are not the same for everyone who decides to attend. Earnings differ widely depending on program of study and the eventual occupation one pursues. Next we explore what is behind the recent rise in the earnings of those who attend college. Like many others, we suggest that the increase has been driven largely by technological change, which has, in turn, increased demand for workers with skills that complement the use of new technologies. We then briefly address the intensifying debate over whether college acts merely as a signal of skill that already exists at school entry or whether it fosters new skills. Next we discuss the possibility of nonpecuniary benefits stemming from college. Returning to the economic benefits of the college premium, we examine how college completion and school quality affect the premium. In closing we discuss the costs of different levels of higher education and student debt and show that the cost of college is properly considered as a long-term investment. The article concludes with a final assessment on the college investment, given the evidence we have to date.

The Decision to Attend College

According to the classic investment theory that describes the decision to attend college, individuals weigh the returns of the college investment against the costs, both direct (such as tuition) and indirect (such as forgone earnings while in college).5 According to the theory, if the difference between the benefits and the costs is larger than the present value of a prospective student's lifetime earnings without attending college, the individual would attend. If everyone were to follow this simple investment model, we could deduce that for those who make the decision to attend college, the present value of the benefits exceeds the costs and that the investment is optimal.6

Making College Worth It: A Review of Research on the Returns to Higher Education

Individuals, however, may not always achieve the optimal educational investment prescribed by this model. On the simplest level, because both the costs and benefits of college can differ tremendously from one person to the next, individuals may not know ahead of time exactly what their costs and benefits will be.7 And recent studies have shed light on several factors that are missing from the model framework. The most obvious is the existence of credit constraints. The theory behind the model assumes that individuals can perfectly borrow against their future incomes and that they have no aversion to holding large amounts of debt. Over the past two decades, however, an increasing number of potential college students may have been pushed against their credit limits.8 For example, one study of cohorts from the late 1990s and early 2000s found, even after controlling for cognitive achievement, family composition, race, and residence, that youth from high-income families were still 16 percentage points more likely to attend college than youth from low-income families.9 Youths who are credit constrained will either underinvest in higher education, stopping their studies before it would be optimal to do so, or not invest at all. Students who take on college in the presence of credit constraints may also feel the need to combine work with their studies, thereby reducing the time, and perhaps commitment, available for schoolwork. Credit constraints seem to be a particularly plausible explanation for the increase in student average hours of work from 1993 through 2005. During this period there was a steady rise in the fraction of high school graduates combining work and school, as college prices continued to rise but sources of financial aid did not follow suit.10

Even in the absence of formal credit constraints, some individuals may be averse to

holding debt. That is, even though prospective students would be able to borrow the amount they need to finance college, they may be unwilling to do so. A 2009 study of how debt affects school enrollment and career choices analyzed an experiment conducted by the New York University School of Law to test how entering students reacted to different types of financial aid.11 The university randomly offered students one of two distinct options: loans and tuition waivers. For entering students who were offered a loan, the university agreed to repay the loan if the students accepted employment in the lower-paying legal public sector upon graduation. Entering students who were offered the tuition waiver were obligated to pay the tuition at graduation if they did not accept employment in the public sector. The two aid packages were equivalent in monetary value and differed only in that the students who were offered the loan were considered to be in debt while they were enrolled in the law school. The study found that students who had their tuition waived were more likely to enroll in the law school and, once there, were significantly more likely to take a job in the public sector. Most high school students have no experience with debt, and many want to avoid incurring thousands of dollars of debt, even though they may eventually reap a significantly positive net return from the investment.

The simple model of educational investment also fails to take into account the problem of incomplete information. Before prospective students enter college, they may lack information about their ability to succeed as college students, as well as about the financial aspects of additional schooling.12 For such students, deciding to enroll in college is a risky investment, with an uncertain payoff. Recent research in this area recognizes the existence of an "option value" associated with attending

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Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic

college.13 Students who decide to take on an additional year of schooling are able to learn during that year about their prospects of success in college, about the costs of college, and about labor market conditions and future earnings prospects. They also gain the valuable option to act on that new information. Some students who enroll may learn that they would be better off by dropping out; some who do not enroll would have learned that they have the capacity to succeed in college. Because of the sequential revelation of information, the decision to invest in college should be viewed not as a one-time choice, but as a series of sequential drop-out or continue-forward decisions, each made after new information becomes available.14 Since prospective students have the freedom to respond to new information and changing circumstances, framing the college decision from this perspective makes most students better off than in the hypothetical scenario where they would be required to commit to their pre-enrollment educational choices.15

Yet another reality that is overlooked by the simple investment model is the cost of navigating through a complex financial aid program--a cost that may be so high as to deter students from attending college. A recent experimental study of financial aid programs as obstacles to college attendance divided low-income families of prospective students who visited tax preparation centers into three groups.16 In the experiment, the full-treatment group received help completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and was given information about financial aid eligibility and tuition prices for nearby colleges. The second group was given information on their eligibility and college tuition, and was encouraged-- but only encouraged--to complete the FAFSA. The control group was simply given

44 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN

a brochure with basic information about college and financial aid. The experiment found that the students who received FAFSA assistance were 25 percent more likely both to enter, and to stay in, college than those who did not.

That a small intervention can make the difference between individuals going or not going to college confirms that not all prospective students follow the straightforward investment model when making the decision whether to attend college. Compared with the potential benefits of attending college, the relatively small barrier of navigating through a complicated financial aid form would not be expected to deter college attendance if individuals were making straightforward optimal investment decisions.

This discussion illustrates that optimal decisions are different for all prospective college students. Individuals differ in terms of what they are likely to get out of higher education and what specific options might be best for them. They may face financial constraints that prohibit them from taking on debt to take advantage of more education. And, even in the absence of debt concerns, they may face information problems and behavioral idiosyncrasies may cause them not to make optimal decisions about attending college.

The College Premium, Returns, and Measurement Issues

In this section we first describe recent trends in labor market earnings for workers in different occupations and with varying levels of educational attainment. Noting that college graduates tend to earn more, on average, than those with only a high school degree across all major occupation sectors, we then turn to a discussion of the causal effect of college on earnings.

Making College Worth It: A Review of Research on the Returns to Higher Education

That a small intervention can make the difference between individuals going or not going to college confirms that not all prospective students follow the straightforward investment model when making the decision whether to attend college. Compared with the potential benefits of attending college, the relatively small barrier of navigating through a complicated financial aid form would not be expected to deter college attendance if individuals were making straightforward optimal investment decisions.

a student graduating from college in 2009 would have lifetime earnings of about $1.2 million net of tuition expenses, compared with $780,000 for a high school graduate.19 College graduates also enjoy higher employment rates. In November of 2011 the unemployment rate for college graduates was 4.4 percent, compared with 8.5 percent for high school graduates.20

Although college graduates generally earn more than those who have only high school degrees, their earnings nevertheless vary significantly across occupations. Median lifetime earnings for bachelor's degree holders are highest in the managerial, health professional, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupation sectors,21 and lowest in the health support, education, and personal services sectors. The median lifetime earnings in 2009 for a bachelor's degree holder working in the STEM sector, for example, were a little over $3 million, compared with about $1.2 million for a peer in the health support sector. But although college graduates in health support earned much less than those in the STEM sector, they earned more than those with high school degrees only.

Descriptive Differences It is well-documented that college-educated adults earn more than their high-schooleducated peers and that the difference has been growing over the past few decades.17 According to a study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, in 1999 an adult with a bachelor's degree earned 75 percent more over a lifetime than a high school graduate; by 2009 the premium had grown to 84 percent.18 Another study estimated that, on average,

Figure 1 displays average annual earnings by occupation and education in 2010 for full-time workers, aged thirty to fifty, from the Current Population Survey.22 As noted, average annual earnings are highest for college graduates (and for those with graduate degrees) in the managerial, STEM, and health professional sectors. Earnings for bachelor's degree holders are lowest in the health support, education, and personal service sectors. The earnings gaps between holders of bachelor's and high school degrees also differ across occupations. College graduates earned about 68 percent more on

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Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic

Figure 1. Average Annual Earnings in 2010 by Occupation and Education

$100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0

Managers

STEM

& Professionals

Education Health Health Community Protective Professionals Support Service & Arts Service

Sales & Office

Blue Collar

Personal Service

High school

Bachelor's degree

Graduate degree

Source: Authors' calculations using the 2010 Current Population Survey Monthly Outgoing Rotation Groups.

Notes: The sample is restricted to full-time workers between ages thirty and fifty. Graduate degree consists of workers with master's and doctoral degrees.

average than high school graduates in the health professional sector, compared with only 27 percent more in the health support field, making it clear that both education and choice of occupation are important determinants of labor market outcomes and the return to college. Without necessarily indicating direct causal relationships, occupational differences in the earnings of those with and without postsecondary education are at least worth considering for prospective students contemplating the choice of college major and eventual sector of employment.23

Figure 2 provides a different perspective on the evidence by displaying the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles of the earnings distributions in 2011 for three different education levels (high school diploma, college degree, and graduate degree) among full-time

46 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN

workers aged thirty to fifty. Several points are worth noting. First, in the 50th percentile the annual earnings for high school graduates are about $34,000, compared with $57,000 for bachelor's degree holders. That is, at the middle of the earnings distributions in 2011, bachelor's degree holders earned about 67 percent more than those with only a high school education. The earnings differences increase for individuals in the 75th and 90th percentiles across each education category-- the gap in average earnings between the highest college earners and the highest high school earners is substantially more than the gap between the lowest college and high school earners. By type of degree, the figure shows that although the premium to a bachelor's degree is high, that to a graduate degree is even higher. Some studies attribute a significant part of the rise in the overall college

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